The number of women running in this municipal election has increased from last year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more on city council.

Around 30 per cent of candidates in this election are women, up from around 20 per cent in 2013. Similarly, the last time the city went to the polls, there were five wards without female candidates while, this year, there are only two, said Kaylin Betteridge, the Women’s Initiative coordinator with the City of Edmonton.

“We’re doing a lot better in that regard,” she said.

However, just because there are more women running doesn’t mean that voters will cast their ballots for them. There are still barriers keeping women from running for council in numbers like their male counterparts, and national statistics suggest some people are still reticent to vote for them, or don’t see parity as an issue.

According to an Abacus Data poll released in March titled “Finding Parity: Opinions on Women in Politics,” a near majority of Canadians believe that it will take 18 years or longer for there to be gender parity in Canada’s House of Commons, and 25 per cent of respondents don’t believe it will happen.

The same research showed that 54 per cent believe that the number of women in the House of Commons is appropriate. Forty-two per cent believe that there are not enough women in those roles, and four per cent responded that there are too many.

According to Lori Thorlakson, political science professor at the University of Alberta, this may not necessarily represent what’s happening in Edmonton as one of the myriad hindrances keeping women from provincial or federal positions is the time they would need to spend travelling for work, away from their families, she said.

She added that this is less common in municipal politics because there is less need for travel.

Male respondents said they believed women saw this as an issue more than female respondents did.

Additionally, both the wage gap in Edmonton and the somewhat conflict-fuelled nature of politics can deter some women from seeking these roles, Betteridge said.

This latter point can be more daunting for younger (18-36) would-be candidates when it comes to social media and dealing with online criticism or trolls, Thorlakson said, citing the Abacus data.

Still, there is some hope to see more women councillors.

The city and province have a few initiatives to increase these numbers, including Opening the Potential, an eight-month program to help interested women run for a seat. The program will run again in 2019.

According to Betteridge, around three alums from this program are running in this election, and a few others are acting as support staff on other campaigns.

Women’s Advocacy Voice of Edmonton, a grassroots organization started around six years ago by immigrant women, also provides some perspective to Edmonton’s currently male-dominated council. They speak to residents and report what they hear back to council as they make policy decisions.

“I think our council, although it isn’t representative of the community, it works really hard to hear those voices,” Betteridge said.

Ward 2 incumbent Bev Esslinger, currently the only woman on city council, said she’s happy to see more representation in this election.

While there’s no guarantee for parity in this election, there are three wards this election in which the previous councillor stepped down, giving a good opening for female candidates, Esslinger said.

“There’s a big debate about the best time for a woman to enter politics. Is it when she’s finished having a family, before she’s had a family, while she has a family?” she said.